What happens to Twin Cites flights and Northwest jobs here?
Industry analysts and consultants believe the Twin Cities hub will be safe in a merger. They don’t see Northwest doing much to scale back flights or destinations. That’s because of the location and profitability of the Twin Cities airport. As a hub, the Twin Cities airport serves as a collection point for Northwest to gather passengers in great numbers from around the country and route them to their final destinations. In 2007, Northwest and its regional airlines carried about 26.5 million passengers to or from the Twin Cities airport. About 60 percent of those passengers were connecting passengers –passengers switching flights in the Twin Cities. Currently, Northwest serves more than 160 domestic and international destinations nonstop from Minneapolis-St. Paul, including Tokyo, London and Amsterdam. Nonstop service to Paris starts in April. Northwest averages 480 departures from the Twin Cities Monday through Friday. About 300 of those flights are on big jets; 180 are on regional jet
